Random Japan #42 :: Through the Eyes of a Child
Welcome to the latest issue of your favorite random look at Japan and mine, Random Japan, issue 42. Now... as all good readers know, the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42†. For this very special issue, then, I thought we'd do something different and take a look at the world through a child's eyes. When I left this morning to take my oldest to preschool, I put him on the bicycle and then handed him my old iPhone and told him to take photos of anything interesting he saw. For today's special issue, I picked out a few of the more interesting shots he took. Ready to see them?
Let's get started! It's time for...
Random Japan
This older fellow is wearing a pair of zori it looks like, which you can think of as straw flip-flops. It's common enough for the older generation to stick to more traditional footwear. Notice he's wearing socks, meaning they are traditional socks which are divided between the big toe and the rest so you can wear them with traditional footwear.
On trash day, everyone takes their trash to various trash stations located all over the neighborhood. Annoyingly every neighborhood has different pick up days, and some neighborhoods divide up the days: for example, plastic trash on Mondays, burnable trash on Tuesdays, glass on Wednesdays, and so on. It seems like the trash station I passed has everything on the same day.
Oh look, my son spotted some Japlish! Indeed, that truck looks tough cool.
A Japanese post box. This is one of the newer style ones. I prefer the older style, but they are getting harder to find. Note that T with a bar on top. That is the symbol for the post office in Japan.
Just an ordinary, ugly Japanese house. Small lot size, so they build up.
Off to work we go.
Strutting by the coffee shop.
Crossing Over.
Small shrines like this along side the road are very common features of even the biggest cities in Japan. Our friend inside, Jizo (O-jizo-sama, to be polite, as all Japanese will be), is the protector of travelers, somewhat similar to St Christopher. Older people may even stop, bow, and pray to these small shrines.
She seems amused to be having her photo taken by a 5 year old on a bicycle.
Bye bye, random Japanese mama.
Oh, my youngest makes his second guest appearance! You'll notice the camera glitched and the right side of his face looks odd, with a tear right above his eye. This is normal for these cheap camera sensors. They record data one line at a time, so when something moves as they are recording, it results in glitches like this. I often abuse this fact for shots, such as my Rolling Shutter shots (see the dancing house a few days ago).
That's all, folks. Hope you enjoyed this look at the world through the eyes of my son. BTW, it may interest you that today I ran all these shots through a Kodachrome filter. Do they look like that classic film to you? Hmm... I'm not sure. I will keep playing with it.
Anyway, be sure to come back tomorrow and join me, if fortune allows, for another Random Japan.
Footnotes
†: And if you don't know this, you, my friend, are not reading enough Dougles Adams. I urge you to rectify this immediately and go read something from him. Start with The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The secret of the universe doesn't show up till the sequel, but best to start with the first one. Don't forget your towel.
If you like this random photo from Japan, be sure to check out @kaliju's great Random Korea series. The latest entry there is Random Korea #22 - Mountain Edition; Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining
Also be sure to follow @kafkanarchy84, @maxinpower, @boxcarblue, and @wllmdnnd for even more random Japan fun! @jrvacation has the occasional randomjapan post too. Also, be sure to follow the #randomjapan tag for more from Japan and #randomasia for random shots from the entire area.
Are you a Japan-based or Asia-based photographer who posts somewhat random photos from the country? If so, use the tag #randomasia, and #randomjapan (or randomASIANCOUNTRYYOUAREIN) on your posts. Also, join our Discord group. DM me on Discord for a link to the server.
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Index Post
Recent Posts
25. The Heartfelt Life
26. O Weary Traveler
27. The Red and The Blue
28. Cars, Ugly Buildings, and Free Water
29. No Walking Without Hat
30. Kill it With Fire
31. Around the Neighborhood
32. The Thin Green Line
33. Time for Some Lovin'
34. Flowers, Walls, and Parks
35. The Dark Side of the Samurai
36. Japan's Real Favorite Pastime
37. Float On
38. God Likes Clean Hands
39. The Thunder Rolls
40. Buddha's Noodles
41. The Old Sea Dog
 | David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time. |
So cool that you turned your son lose with taking photos! Great job and very interesting! Not sure if I can detect you used that filter - maybe if I saw them side by side I could tell.
He did good, didn't he? As to the filter, yeah it does look obvious that I used one when compared to the original. My concern is does it really look like Kodachrome or not. And hmm... I'm not sure it does. But Kodachrome was really a unique film process—one I'm not sure it is possible to emulate in the digital space.
He's good! I can learn a thing or two from him. Also, I heard (and tested) that shooting from below the hip as if through a child's perspective - the world seems bigger and richer in photographs and it's always better to shoot from low stance angles. True?
First time hearing about 42! Numerology is so broad.
I could learn a thing or two from him too, I think. The little guy will be teaching his old man before I know it!
Re: Shooting fro a low angle: That is what they say. Supposedly it works more on a subconscious level, giving us more a feeling of awe and wonder. I haven't read any psychology studies on the idea, but some photos do look better when you squat down before taking them. I often recommend trying both a standing shot and a squatting shot and then later seeing which one you like when processing your images.
Actually, the 42 was a joke ;) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy novel. But that hasn't stopped many people in the years since from claiming that the author did actually, unwittingly, stumble onto a secret truth about the number. haha so who knows.
Flip flop socks ... Japanese brilliance know no bounds:)Whoever thought up those is a genius:)
haha that's a better way of putting it. We could almost market it in the West with a label like that! I like the socks, but the really cool thing is the boots that are also divided at the big toe. Many construction workers still use those divided toe boots.
In the first picture there is a metal drain in the road. What are one those? Is it a map of some sort?
Also it would be awesome to let your son loose in a garden filled with colors. It would be interesting to see what he chooses. I don't know if his old enough to find out why he chose to snap what he did. But that type of stuff interests me.
It's a manhole cover. The manhole covers in Japan are usually painted with some design from history. I did a post on this before—check here.
That does sound like a good idea. I will let him take more of his own photos from this point forward.